Napa Wildfires Update: Hoarse Voices And Cautiously Good News

Cathy Huyghe
, ContributorI write about the people, business and politics of the wine industry.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Today's post, with a focus on Napa, follows yesterday's article on the impact of the wildfires on Sonoma County's wine and marijuana industries. As the fires continue to burn in northern California, which cover as much acreage as the state of Rhode Island, there are still many unknowns, both for local residents who have lost homes and places of employment, and for the hospitality industry as a whole.

Several narratives have emerged throughout coverage of the fires, including the groundswell of support for relief and recovery efforts; the tremendous efforts of thousands of fire fighters from inside and especially outside the region; the resiliency and strength of the local community; and what we're seeing as we look ahead to the challenges (and their solutions) that the industry will have to face.

What follows are excerpts from conversations I've been having with people on the ground in Napa. Part One considers landscape management in the near-term as well as the fires’ impact on tourism in the longer-term. Part Two explores six specific instances that are already moving the region toward recovery.

SANTA ROSA, CA -OCTOBER 15: A firefighter uses a drip torch to set a backfire to protect houses in Adobe Canyon during the Nuns Fire on October 15, 2017 near Santa Rosa, California. At least 40 people were killed while many are still missing, and at least 5,700 buildings have been destroyed since wildfires broke out a week ago. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Voices on the Ground

One of the most telling factors is not just what the people on the ground say, but how they sound when they're saying it.

How they sound, is hoarse.

Partly that's because the people on the ground are tired beyond tired, and partly it's because of the compromised air quality that's causing breathing and respiratory problems throughout the region.

“It was so bad that as soon as you walked outside, your eyes started hurting and your nose starting running,” said Rob McMillan, Executive Vice President and Founder of the Silicon Valley Bank Wine Division. “It was like breathing a campfire.”

McMillan’s own home in Browns Valley, just west of the town of Napa, was saved by a vineyard development crew working nearby who cut a firebreak themselves with their own bulldozers. Fires threatened the neighborhood at the beginning of last week, when most rescue workers from outside the region hadn’t arrived yet. "It was just these guys, trying to do what they can,” he said. “They put themselves in danger. A lot of these kinds of stories are going to come out.”

Not Out of the Woods Yet

There has been some cautiously good news this weekend: fire containment levels creep higher, for example, and the evacuation advisory within the city limits of Napa has been lifted. Just as in Sonoma, however, pieces of good news does not mean that we're out of the woods yet.

"The same conditions [that started the fire] still exist," said Jennifer Putnam, Executive Director of the Napa Valley Grapwgrowers. "We don’t know how the fire started, and it’s still just as dry."

Fire or no fire, landscape management is a complex thing, as Putnam pointed out. There are no straight lines.

Fortunately (the term is relative), the fire started while harvest was still going on, which means that growers had not spread straw yet, as they do every year after harvest, in order to create a blanket above the soil so that the soil doesn’t slide during the typically rainy winter season. "As you can imagine," Putnam said, "dry straw would have been tremendously flammable."

Denuded vegetation that the wildfires have caused, however, increases the chances of erosion when it does start raining. Putnam and her colleagues are developing best practices in response. "Without grass to hold the ground in place, even a moderate winter could really raise the level of erosion," she said. "If there isn't enough vegetation to hold the ground in place, it'll slide off."

Putnam and others are looking months and years ahead, in terms of the landscape and in terms of the tourism industry that is so fundamental to the region’s financial well-being.

Impact on Tourism

The current situation in northern California is “a horrible thing to look at,” McMillan said. “Damages to the homes are the hardest to bear, but the businesses are going to be there and they’ll get back to normal in a very short amount of time once the air clears. The region will be beautiful and worth visiting again. We’re not open now but we will be soon.”

Since both Napa and Sonoma are heavily dependent on tourism for their economies, the expected near-term drop in visitors will impact occupancy and property taxes, which will eventually hurt city services. In the longer-term, when it comes to rebuilding, McMillan pointed out that there are not enough architects in the area who understand county codes, and the city can’t process that many plans all at once. Those are some of the places where he expects the pain points to show.

Still, like every resident I’ve interviewed directly, McMillan remains optimistic about the community response to this disaster.

“It’s a cool thing about our culture,” he said. “We can yell at each other, hate our politicians, debate forcefully about almost anything. But when somebody’s hurting, everybody’s there to help where they can.”